I cannot speak to the efficacy of the enzymes found in honey but I understand
the principles involved when heat is applied. Enzymes are typically large
molecules that are enfolded back on themselves. Heat, denatures, or breaks
these bonds that are relative weak as compared to ionic or covalent bonds
that result from electron exchange or sharing. The bonds of folded portions
of a molecule are due to differences in charges of groups of atoms in one
area of the molecule. Heat straights the molecules and therefore some of
their properties are lost. The issue seems to be not one of losing atoms but
of the lost properties due to a molecule straightening out. Our digestion
breaks down many molecules anyway before they are absorbed in the gut. My
guess is that the weaker bonds of folded molecules are lost anyway in our
gut. A question for a beekeeper chemist trained in human metabolism to
answer.

Contact me at:
       Rick Green
       8 Hickory Grove Lane
       Ballston Lake, NY 12019
       (518) 384-2539
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